Ten Minutes to Closing
by leftyguitar
Summary: Murder in a supermarket The Manager everyone loves to hate is found dead DL in later chapters
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: Don't own anything you recognize. I just am borrowing them to fulfill my slightly deranged imagination. **

**Spoilers: Anything in season 1 or 2.**

**Ten Minutes to Closing**

**Chapter 1**

Dylan Thomas Mala stood behind the seafood counter in the supermarket, glaring at the clock. In ten minutes he'd be to leave for the night, ending another mindless shift at the store. Dylan hated his job with a passion, but it beat starving. He couldn't wait to finish college and get a real career. He was already a good artist, much like his late older half-brother, Frankie though his skills lay in graphic design and drawing, not sculpture.

A customer approached the area. _Damn it! I'm never gonna get out here tonight. _He forced a smile and stepped into the slightly too bright florescent light behind the seafood case. "Hi!" he said, a little too enthusiastically to be anything but sarcasm. "What can I get for you?"

The old women didn't get the hint "I want 10 pounds of Alaskan King Crab Legs."

"Okay" Dylan fought the urge to jump over the counter and strangle her. "I need to run down to the freezer to get another case. I'll just b a minute." He sighed, resigning himself to the fact that they always wait until you were ready to leave. He practically ran across the sales floor, where the huge freezer was.

The freezer was dark and cold, as usual. He strolled the back, where his crab legs were. Dylan suddenly noticed an odd shape in the middle of the floor. He stepped back to take a closer look. It looked an awful lot like his boss, Josh Bennet, otherwise known as the fat man. To his horror, he realized it was the fat man!

A/N: Sorry it's so short. I'll update as soon as I can. R&R Hope you like it. Thanks!


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: See previous Chapter(s)**

**Ten Minutes to Closing**

**Chapter 2**

Danny glanced over at Flack. "Who found the body?"

"Dylan **_Mala_**. Seafood Clerk, college student and the half brother of Frankie Mala."

"Stell's gonna love that." Danny frowned at his friend. "First at the scene, first suspect."

"Says he was just getting something from the freezer when he found the guy." Flack pointed out a young man standing a few yards away. The kid seemed nervous. He was starring at the body. Danny walked over to him.

"What happened?" he questioned.

"Like I told your friend, I went into the freezer to grab a case of King Crab Legs and found the fat man like that." Dylan spoke with a thick Boston accent.

"You don't seem too upset someone killed your boss." Danny observed.

"I'm not. Guy's an asshole. Or was, I guess. Anyone who works down on the sales floor will tell you same. Hard to like a guy that couldn't even run the shop right, and reminds you that you can be replaced every thirty seconds. A few people in the office like him, but that's all." Dylan adjusted his glasses and looked at Danny. "When can I get out here? I didn't kill the guy, but you'd have a hard time finding someone who didn't want to." The blue-eyed clerk sighed. "I'll even give you fingerprints or DNA to prove I didn't do it. I just want to get out of here. Got a dog waiting at my apartment. "

"Thanks" Danny answered. " I might just take you up on that offer." He walked over to Stella, who was talking to a small group of employees. Their nametags read Jack, Doug, Jess and Andrew. Most of them, like Dylan looked like college kids. The exception was Doug, the assistant manager. Danny asked Stella, "They have anything say?"

"Not really. Seemed like a typical, slow weeknight until Dylan paged Doug." Stella paused thoughtfully, then added, "Sid should be here soon. Go help Lindsey process.

Danny nodded, "I just spoke to the kid that found the body. Seems innocent, but that doesn't mean much until we look at the evidence. He's also Frankie's little brother. That gonna bother you?"

"That's interesting. I didn't know he had a brother." She shook her head. "Don't think I'll have a problem with it, though. You think he did it?"

"No, I don't, he even offered to give us fingerprints and DNA. Why would he do that if he's guilty?"

"Just focus on what over evidence says." She responded.

Danny went to look at the body and help Montana. He entered the cold, dark crime scene. The body was lying near the back. It was clear why Dylan had called him the 'fat man'. Mr. Bennet was sprawled in a frozen pool of blood, a blue, plastic knife handle sticking out of his chest. He glanced around and noticed a few shoeprints around the area. He took photos of them, hoping the suspect had left them behind.

Montana was looking at the body. She noticed a few faint red spots on the vic's shoes, well away from the blood from the stab wound. She tested to make sure it wasn't blood, and then took a sample to analyze back at the lab.

"Oh, Hi Danny," She greeted her friend without looking up. "Find anything over there?"

"Got shoeprints. Could be from the killer or anyone else with access to the freezer." He looked at the prints again. "Strange pattern. Looks like some kind of slip resistant shoe." he noted. "How 'bout you?"

"Something red on his boot that isn't blood. Looks like some kind of sauce." A few seconds later Sid walked in. He took a look at the body.

"C.O.D. looks obvious. Body was here long enough for the blood on floor to freeze but your guy isn't completely frozen. I'd say he's been here no more than 8 hours, but at least 4."

"And nobody found him? This is a busy supermarket. Some had to have been down here." Lindsey didn't believe it.

Danny shrugged "It's a slow night. We got more employees than customers here. He's also at the back of a dark cooler. They could've just not noticed him."

"How do you 'not notice' a dead guy in your freezer?" Stella walked in.

"It is kind of dark in here." Lindsey pointed out. "The other employees say anything interesting?"

"Just that, expect his daughter, Jessica, no one was all that sorry someone killed him."

"Fits what Dylan, the kid that found the body, told me. Says most of his employees hated him." Danny added. The three of them continued to process the scene as Sid and his assistant took the body back to the morgue. Danny and Lindsey went over every inch of the freezer, finding blood spatter on the wall, and more shoeprints. Stella stepped out to take a phone call. A moment later, the freezer door slammed closed!

Startled, Danny sprang to his feet and ran straight into Lindsey. "Watch it, Montana!" They got their bearings and headed toward the door together.

"These doors won't lock without a padlock on the outside." Lindsey remembered. After a few seconds, they found the emergency release and opened the door.

"All right. I doubt we're going to find much else here. Let's had back to the lab." Danny decided.

**A/N: I meant to post earlier, but I had go to work. I'll update as fast as I can. Please read & review. Thanks! **


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: See previous chapters**

**Ten Minutes to Closing**

**Chapter 3**

Stella and Sid stood in morgue, waiting for their colleagues to catch up with them. Lindsey and Danny followed a few minutes later.

Sid spoke to the CSIs, "Now that we're all here, let's see what we've got. The victim, Joshua Bennet, was stabbed twice with the knife still in his chest. The first one hit a major artery and punctured his lung. He died few minutes later. The second appears not the have hit anything vital, and the knife was left in the wound, so it wouldn't have bled as much as the first. Now let's get the murder weapon out."

Sid pulled out the knife and gave it to Stella. She bagged it to process later. Sid suddenly noticed an odd, spongy pink substance in the wound. He picked it up with tweezers and gave it to Lindsey, who would figure out what it was.

"Thanks, Sid" Stella said. The three of them went out into the hallway. She handed Danny the knife, which was stainless steal, and had a blue, plastic handle just like most of the knives in the seafood or deli areas. "You process the murder weapon. Linds, you do trace on this. I'll run with the shoeprints Danny found."

They each headed off in a different direction.

Danny took a good look at the knife in his hand. He lifted several prints from the handle. There were at least two different sets of prints on it, maybe more. Danny ran them through AFIS, but came up empty. He then checked for a match with fingerprints taken from the store employees, Jess, and Dylan. There were still some unknown prints, but they were most likely to be from other employees. He also sent a sample of the DNA found to Jane, but knew he'd have wait for her to process it. Then, Danny called Stella to tell her what he found.

Stella frowned at the shoeprint on table in front of her. It looked exactly like the three or four others Danny found, expect for the size. It was from a slip resistant shoe, probably coming from an employee. _But why would they all wear the same type of shoe. _She'd need to talk to the workers at the store again. Suddenly, a cell phone ringing loudly broke the silence, followed by her pager.

Lindsey glanced at the report in front of her. It claimed the red stuff she found was cocktail sauce, which didn't mean much without context. She moved on to the odd pink stuff Sid found. It had a very slimy texture and smelled a bit like …fish? _Wasn't the kid who the body a seafood clerk? _Things did not look good for Frankie's little brother. Lindsey quickly paged Stella.

Stella answered her phone, "Bonasera"

"Hi" Danny answered. "The prints on the murder weapon came back to Dylan and Jess. We should have Flack bring them in."

"All right. I need to get a few questions about these shoeprints answered anyway." Stella hung up the phone to call Lindsey.

"Monroe" she answered professionally.

"What did you find from trace?"

"Cocktail sauce and Wild Alaskan King Salmon. You to have Flack bring in Dylan."

"I all ready am." Stella filled Lindsey in on what Danny and she had found.

About an hour later, Flack and Danny stood in the interrogation room with Dylan Mala. He looked some different without his store uniform on. He wore torn denim jacket, a faded Led Zeppelin T-shirt, and a well-worn Red Sox hat that been signed by Curt Schilling. The hat served to keep his long, curly blond hair out of his eyes. Stella stood, watching from the other side of the one-way glass.

"Any idea why your fingerprints on the murder weapon?"

"No. But I'll bet they aren't the only ones." Dylan was getting impatient. "Anyone in seafood or deli could grab one of the knives. I use it to cut and skin fish."

"We also found cocktail on your boss. Wanna tell us how it got there?"

The young clerk shrugged, "I knocked over a jar earlier that day. He was there just in time to threaten to fire me if I didn't shape up."

Flack considered this, "You sure it wasn't an accident? Maybe meant to scare and it just got out of hand?"

"You think I did this?" Dylan didn't want to believe it was happening again. "I know my brother went nuts on one of you CSI guys. But that doesn't mean I'm like him. I hated the fat man, but I wouldn't hurt anyone just because of that." His clear, blue eyes seemed to be pleading with them to believe him. Dylan was fighting the urge to yell, scream and beg them to listen. If they did their jobs right it would prove his innocence.

"One more question." Danny spoke up. "Do you know why all the shoeprints in the freezer are the same?"

"We're supposed to wear slip resistant overshoes that don't really work. Everyone in the seafood and deli departments has a pair." Dylan found this question a little odd. "We keep them at the store."

"Thanks." Danny and Flack allowed him to leave. Stella stepped into the room.

"I'm not sure I believe him."

"Well, I do." Danny thought about it. "Why not talk to him yourself if you doubt him?"

"Oh that'll go well. 'Hi, I'll Stella, the one who killed your brother. Did you stab your boss?' That would get him to confess."

"Good point. So where do we go from here?"

"Back to scene of the crime. I want to get those overshoes and figure this out." Stella answered. "I'll stay here and try to match rest of the prints, and also wait for DNA results from the knife."

**A/N: I would have finished earlier, but it's hard to type with a large, frightened dog under your desk. She ran in my room because thunderstorms scare her. Anyway, I know Stella would have probably gone with them but you'll see why I left her there next chapter. Also D/L and Danny getting himself in trouble next chapter. Please R&R. Thanks.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: See previous chapters.**

**Ten Minutes to Closing**

**Chapter 4**

Danny and Lindsey pulled into the huge parking lot of the store and walked in. They headed straight for seafood area. Jess, a sales associate in the deli tried to stop them, "You're not allowed back here!"

Danny showed her a warrant. "This says we're allowed where ever we want." She backed off immediately.

"We're also going to need everyone's overshoes," added Lindsey. The associates took off their shoes and Danny put them in evidence bags. The customers at the store were getting a little annoyed that all the employees were too busy to serve them. "What's going on here!" am impatient, clueless customer demanded. Doug, now store manager, practically ran down to the deli and seafood areas.

"What hell is going on?" he bellowed. Doug spotted the CSIs. "Why are you people back here?"

"Just collecting evidence." Danny responded. "May we look at your shoes?"

"Why?"

"Why not?" Lindsey answered. Doug took off the overshoes and handed them over.

Dylan chose that moment to walk in for the start of his shift. He took in the scene and rolled his eyes. "Now what are you people looking for?"

"Overshoes." Danny said causally. "Where are the rest of them?"

Doug sighed "Show them." H went help serve the crowd of customers that had materialized in the two minutes they had been talking to Danny and Lindsey.

Dylan led them over to a small back room. "Seems like I just left you guys." He pointed out a large storage bin when both Danny and Lindsey's phones went off.

They both answered. Stella had called Danny, and Jane was talking to Lindsey. The DNA on the murder weapon matched Doug! They had called to warn them, and said Flack was on the way to make the arrest. They hung up and looked at each other. "I'm gonna test his shoes for blood to make sure he's our guy." Lindsey said.

The shoes tested positive. She showed Danny just as someone snuck up behind her with a knife. "The Fat Man was gonna run the store into the ground. I couldn't let that happen us. He treated everyone like shit and didn't care that he was going to put all of us out of work, as long he got what he waned. He didn't deserve to live!"

Danny couldn't let this lunatic injure Montana. He was surprised by who how he cared for Lindsey. _No way I can let this creep hurt her._ Without thinking, he tackled Doug.

They both fell to ground. Doug beat him to the knife and stabbed him. Suddenly Doug fell off him, looking a bit stunned. Danny glanced up at his rescuer to see Dylan, wielding a large, slightly damaged, fish. The young clerk had smacked Doug in the head with a salmon. Danny took advantage of the distraction to grab his gun. "Put your weapon down." he ordered. Instead of answering, Doug grabbed his knife and tried to attack Lindsey. Danny fired to save her from being hurt. Doug dropped to the floor for the final time.

"Danny, hang on." Lindsey quickly called for help on her cell phone. _I can't lose him now! _Danny managed to smile at her.

"Couldn't let that sick bastred hurt you. I … ", Danny started coughing up blood. _That's not a good sign. _

"Don't try to talk." _Where the hell was the ambulance? _Flack entered the store a few seconds later.

"Ambulance was only a minute behind me." He stopped, starring in disbelief at what had happened to his friend. Lindsey was fighting back tears.

"He went after the guy to save me." She was holding Danny's hand. Flack tried to comfort her. He'll be okay. The paramedics were right behind me.

Sure enough, they arrived seconds later. Lindsey and Flack watched as they worked.

One of them spoke to Lindsey. "Your friend probably has a punctured lung, and is bleeding very badly, but he should be okay once we get him to the hospital. Lindsey went with them in the ambulance.

Flack met them at the hospital, along with Stella, Hawkes and Mac. As the doctors rushed Danny to the OR Lindsey and Flack filled them in on what happened. Mac was the first to notice how upset Lindsey was. "You stay with him when he gets out of surgery." he said.

A doctor came out looking for them. "Is there a Mac Taylor or Lindsey Monroe here?" he asked.

"Yes," Mac answered. "We're his emergency contacts."

"I came to tell that Detective Messer had a punctured lung and lost a lot of blood. He is stable now but he will have to stay here for a while."

"Can I go see him now?" Lindsey asked.

"He's not awake yet, but you can if you want to." He led Lindsey to Danny's room.

The others waited until Lindsey walked off. "Why is Lindsey his emergency contact?" wondered Hawkes.

Mac sighed "Because they've been dating for several months. You didn't notice?"

"They've always flirted with each other at work. Didn't think anything of it."

Flack remarked, "That explains why she's so upset. Linds held his hand all the way to the hospital."

Back in Danny's room, Danny had just woken up.

"Hi, Montana… "

**A/N: Almost finished. I'll try and have the next chapter up tonight, but not making any promises R&R Thanks! **


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: See Previous Chapters **

**Ten Minutes to Closing**

**Chapter 5**

Danny and Lindsey were sitting together in a hospital room "Danny, you scared the hell out of everyone today. What were you thinking?"

. "Montana, what happened earlier today… I couldn't let that lunatic hurt you." he said, waiting for her to start lecturing him about not tackling armed suspects.

"Danny you can't keep taking stupid risks like that. You might not be as lucky next time. And I really don't want to lose you." she said.

"I didn't want you to hurt either. He looked like he was gonna cut your throat if I didn't do something." Danny answered. "And I had to protect the women I love." _Can't believe I just said that. I'm a lot of trouble if she doesn't feel the same way._

"Danny I…" Montana was interrupted as Mac entered the room.

"I need to get a statement from both about what happened."

"Can you wait a minute. I'm trying to tell Danny I love him!" Lindsey said, annoyed at his bad timing.

"Oh.. uh sorry." Mac said, quickly leaving the room.

"I love you too, Montana." He sat up a kissed her. Several long moments passed before they broke apart for air,

"Damn Montana.." She kissed him again as the entire CSI tea walked in.

"It's about time you two got together," Flack remarked. "You all right buddy?" he added, concerned for his friend.

"Yea, Doc says I should be okay in a few weeks.. Be kicking your ass at basketball again before you know it."

Flack grinned back at him. Danny's mouth was still working, anyway. Three was a knock at the door. Dylan entered the room nervously. "I just got off work. Thought I'd come to see if you were all right."

"Who are you?" Mac asked.

"That is Dylan Mala. He probably saved my life by hitting a dangerous murder with a fish. Also the younger brother of Frankie." Danny answered for him.

"Half-brother. I was the end result of our father's business trip to Boston." Dylan added. "and Frankie and I didn't have a hell of a lot in common, anyway."

Stella looked at him. "I really don't know what to say to you. I'm the one who he.."

"You don't really need to say anything. He attacked you and you had to defend yourself ." Dylan spoke calmly. "It's not your fault my brother was psychotic."

Hawkes put on a baseball game, and Flack and Danny spent the afternoon arguing with Dylan about whether the Yankees really suck or not.

All expect Lindsey and Flack returned to the lab. Mac and Hawkes had been working a double murder and needed to get back to work.. Stella went through the evidence and confirmed Doug had been their killer. He had taken the knife from seafood to frame Dylan, who was just in the wrong place, and would have made a good suspect because of the argument with Mr. Bennet that had happened earlier that day.

**A/N: Finished! Would posted earlier but got caught in a torrential downpour and wound up watching X-Men Three to et out of the rain. Would've seen Pirates of Caribbean 2 again but it wasn't playing at the closer theater. Anyhow, Please read & review I plan to write more stories with Dylan so let me know what you think. Thanks!  **


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